Farmer in the Sky

Farmer In The Sky is a 1953 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a teenage boy who emigrates with his family to Jupiter's moon Ganymede, which is in the process of being terraformed. A condensed version of the novel was published in serial form in 1950 in Boys' Life magazine (August, September, October, November), under the title "Satellite Scout".

Citizen of the Galaxy

In a distant galaxy of colonized planets, the atrocity of slavery is alive and well. Young Thorby was just another bedraggled orphan boy sold at auction, but his new owner, Baslim, is not the disabled beggar he appears to be. Adopting Thorby as his son, Baslim fights relentlessly as an abolitionist spy. When the authorities close in on Baslim, Thorby must find his own way in a hostile galaxy. Joining with the Free Traders, a league of merchant princes, Thorby must find the courage to live by his wits and fight his way up from society's lowest rung.

Tunnel in the Sky

When Rod Walker decides to take the final test for “Deacon” Matson’s interplanetary survival course, he knows he will be facing life-or-death situations on an unsettled planet. What he doesn’t expect is that something will go wrong with the “Tunnel in the Sky” and he and his fellow students will not be able to return to Terra. Stranded on a hostile planet, Rod and his friends are faced wit the challenge of carving a civilization out of the wilderness.

Space Cadet

Matt Dodson arrives at Space Academy little prepared for the rigorous program he is about to enter. But that’s the point of the academy: to take young men and steep them in a demanding tradition of honor, courage, and sacrifice until they have earned the right to join the Patrol as guardians of the solar peace. Unfortunately, even the academy’s high power training can’t completely prepare Matt and his friends Tex and Oscar for the harrowing test of both survival and diplomatic skills they will face when a mission goes disastrously wrong.

The Door into Summer

Dan Davis, an electronics engineer, had finally made the invention of a lifetime: a household robot that could do almost anything. Wild success was within reach, but then Dan's life was ruined. In a plot to steal his business, his greedy partner and greedier fiancée tricked him into taking the "long sleep": suspended animation for 30 years.

Red Planet

Jim Marlowe and his strange-looking Martian friend, Willis, are allowed to travel only so far. But one day Willis unwittingly tunes in to a treacherous plot that threatens all the colonists on Mars, and it sets Jim off on a terrifying adventure that could save - or destroy - them all.

The Star Beast: Heinlein's Juveniles, Book 8

Lummox has been the pet of the Stuart family for generations. With eight legs, a thick hide, and increasingly large size, Lummox is nobody's idea of man's best friend. Nevertheless, John Stuart XI, descendant of the starman who originally brought Lummox back to Earth, loves him. But when Lummox eats a neighbor's car and begins to grow again, the feds decide that enough is enough.

Rocket Ship Galileo

Ross Jenkins, Art Mueller, and Morris Abrams are not your average high-school students. While other kids are cruising around in their cars or playing ball, this trio, known as the Galileo Club, is experimenting with rocket fuels. Art's uncle, the nuclear physicist Dr. Donald Cargraves, offers them the opportunity of a lifetime: to construct and crew a rocket that will take them to the moon. But there are those who don't share their dream and who will stop at nothing to keep their rocket grounded.

The Man Who Sold the Moon

Today the moon - tomorrow the stars. The Man Who Sold the Moon: A landmark volume in Heinlein’s magnificent Future History series. D. D. Harriman is a billionaire with a dream: the dream of Space for All Mankind. The method? Anything that works. Maybe, in fact, Harriman goes too far. But he will give us the stars....

Time for the Stars

Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of Earth, the necessity of finding habitable worlds is growing ever more urgent. There’s a problem though—because the spaceships are slower than light, any communication between the exploring ships and Earth would take years.

Tom and Pat are identical twin teenagers. As twins they’ve always been close, so close that it seemed like they could read each other’s minds.

Glory Road

. C. “Scar” Gordon was on the French Riviera recovering from a tour of combat in Southeast Asia, but he hadn’t given up his habit of scanning the personals in the newspaper. One ad in particular leapt out at him: "Are you a coward? This is not for you. We badly need a brave man. He must be 23 to 25 years old, in perfect health, at least six feet tall, weigh about 190 pounds, fluent English with some French, proficient with all weapons, some knowledge of engineering and mathematics essential...."

Methuselah's Children

After the fall of the American Ayatollahs as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land and chronicled in Revolt in 2100, the United States of America at last fulfills the promise inherent in its first Revolution: for the first time in human history there is a nation with Liberty and Justice for All. No one may seize or harm the person or property of another, or invade his privacy, or force him to do his bidding. Americans are fiercely proud of their re-won liberties and the blood it cost them; nothing could make them forswear those truths they hold self-evident. Nothing except the promise of immortality…

Have Space Suit - Will Travel

First prize in the Skyway Soap slogan contest was an all-expenses-paid trip to the moon. The consolation prize was an authenticspace suit, and when scientifically minded high school senior Kip Russell wonit, he knew for certain he would use it one day to make a sojourn of his own tothe stars. But "one day" comes sooner than he thinks when he tries the suit on in his backyard - and finds himself worlds away, a prisoner aboard a space pirate's ship.

Revolt in 2100

After the fall of the American Ayatollahs (as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land) there is a Second American Revolution; for the first time in human history there is a land with Liberty and Justice for All.

Friday

Friday, a secret courier, is thrown into an assignment under the command of her employer, a man she knows only as "Boss." She operates from and over a near-future Earth in North America, a vulgar and chaotic land comprised of dozens of independent states. In America's disunion, Friday keeps her balance nimbly with quick, expeditious solutions as she conquers one calamity and scrape after another.

Sixth Column

The totalitarian East has triumphed in a massive invasion, and the United States has fallen to a dictatorial superpower bent on total domination. That power is consolidating its grip through concentration camps, police state tactics, and a total monopoly upon the very thoughts of the conquered populace. A tiny enclave of scientists and soldiers survives, unbeknownst to America’s new rulers. It’s six against six million - but those six happen to include a scientific genius, a master of subterfuge and disguise who learned his trade as a lawyer-turned-hobo, and a tough-minded commander....

Farnham's Freehold

Hugh Farnham is a practical, self-made man, and when he sees the clouds of nuclear war gathering, he builds a bomb shelter under his house, hoping for peace and preparing for war. But when the apocalypse comes, something happens that he did not expect. A thermonuclear blast tears apart the fabric of time and hurls his shelter into a world with no sign of other human beings.

I Will Fear No Evil

As startling and provocative as his famous Stranger in a Strange Land, here is Heinlein’s grand masterpiece about a man supremely talented, immensely old, and obscenely wealthy who discovers that money can buy everything.

Waldo & Magic, Inc.

North Power Air is in trouble. Their aircraft are crashing at an alarming rate and no one can figure out the cause. Desperate for an answer, they turn to Waldo, a crippled misanthropic genius who lives in a home in orbit around Earth, where the absence of gravity means that his feeble muscle strength does not confine him helplessly in a wheelchair. But Waldo has little reason to want to help the rest of humanity - until he learns that the solution to Earth’s problems also holds the key to his own.

Job: A Comedy of Justice

After firewalking in Polynesia, fundamentalist minister Alexander Hergensheimer never saw the world the same. Now called Alec Graham, he was in the middle of an affair with his stewardess, Margrethe, and natural disasters kept following them. First, there was an impossible iceberg that wrecked the ship in the tropics; then, after being rescued by a Royal Mexican plane, they were hit by a double earthquake. To Alex, the signs were clear that Armageddon and the Day of Judgment were near.

The Puppet Masters

At key points throughout North America, an invasion force is taking over communications, government, industry, and people's bodies. And the nation is helpless to stop it, because the invaders multiply far faster than they can be destroyed, controlling the mind of every unsuspecting person they encounter. Enter Sam Cavanaugh, a can-do intelligence officer for the United States' most secret service. Cavanaugh is the only man who can stop the invaders. But to do that he'll have to be invaded himself.

The Rolling Stones

One of Heinlein's best-loved works, The Rolling Stones follows the rollicking adventures of the Stone family as they tour the solar system. It doesn't seem likely for twins to have the same middle name. Even so, it's clear that Castor and Pollux Stone both have "Trouble" written in that spot on their birth certificates. Of course, anyone who's met their grandmother Hazel would know they came by it honestly.

The Cat Who Walks through Walls

When a stranger attempting to deliver a cryptic message is shot dead at his dinner table, Richard Ames is thrown headfirst into danger, intrigue, and other dimensions where Lazarus Long still thrives, where Jubal Harshaw lives surrounded by beautiful women, and where a daring plot to rescue the sentient computer called Mike can change the direction of all human history.

Podkayne of Mars

A tale beloved by many fans of Robert A. Heinlein, Podkayne of Mars tells the story of a young Marswoman and her interplanetary adventures with her uncle and her genius brother. Told largely through Podkayne's diaries, the story details her travel to Earth with her two companions. Podkayne has definite plans on what to do and how to do it, but not everything is as it seems. She is suddenly thrust into the middle of life-or-death situations when the liner they are traveling on makes a stop at Venus.

Publisher's Summary

It was a desperate time, when one's next meal and the comforts of home couldn't be taken for granted. Max Jones, a practical, hard-working young man, found his escape in his beloved astronomy books. But when reality comes crashing in and his troubled home life forces him out on the road, Max finds himself adrift in a downtrodden land - until an unexpected, ultimate adventure carries him away as a stowaway aboard an intergalactic spaceship.

But to where? And when? And how can he ever get back? With the ship's pilot dead and his charts and tables all destroyed, Max must call upon all of his untested knowledge and skills in order to survive.

As a fan of Heinlein's "Juveniles" I particularly enjoyed this book - it's one of my favorites.

It is one of his space ship stories (rather than being planet based). If you are a fellow fan, then you should enjoy this book too.

If you're not a big fan, then you need to know that it does have his usual level of meticulous and copious scientific and mathematic detail, which may annoy some. It also has one of his willful female characters whom I, as a woman, found mildly irritating.

The narrator is adequate. I didn't find that he either improved or detracted from the story. Those who are very sensitive to the narrator should definitely listen to the whole sample before deciding.

This one was a great read! It didn't follow the typical boy is an idiot, boy discovers he has amazing powers, boy winds up winning the girl, the fame and the world, bla, bla, bla... that so many scifi/fantasy stories do. For an older book, it seemed up to date enough to me to hold my interest. In fact, I found myself impressed that Heinlein wrote such a contemporary story so long ago. I enjoyed it very much and will look into more Heinlein books.

Starman Jones! I loved this book when I was a young boy back in the 60's! I found this book in a public library as I needed to write a book report. I was not much of a reader then, but I was totally engrossed by this book at the time.

Until now, I did not remember that it was written by Robert A. Heinlein who is such a famous and prolific science fiction writer. Other books: "Have Space Suite, Will Travel", "Strangers in a Strange Land", "Starship Troopers"... and many, many more.

Having re-read it after 40+ years, I sill enjoyed it (with the understanding, that this book was written for teenagers).

For more information on "Heinlein juveniles" genre books that you may also like (and find at Audible). Do a Google search on "Heinlein juveniles".

This is my first Heinlein read and I now realize that I have been missing out. Some people were saying that this is a bad first book to start with Heinlein, but I have to disagree. This makes a great stand-alone novel and was a solid 5 star listen. The book seemed appropriate for adults and young adults.

Starman Jones is about a farmer boy born into a society where guilds control all the professions. Some guilds require lineage and have very expensive apprenticeships. All Jones has wanted to do since he was young was be an astrogator and go into space. Unfortunately for Jones, he is poor. When his uncle died without informing him whether had a recommendation to a guild he is unsure whether this goal may be obtainable. When circumstances place Jones in a position where he must run it seems obvious where his path must lead. With intelligence and an eidetic memory as guide he sets out to be more than just a poor farmers boy. In the process of his journey he meets a shady homeless man named Sam. When these two team up, the trouble starts, and they find themselves in an adventure across the galaxy.

This story was quite a ride. We get a look at a futuristic planet and society that encompasses the galaxy. There are multiple planets in this timeline where space travel is possible, but requires great mathematicians to course correct between worlds. You get some scientific jargon but it is completely fun and easy to follow. Plus, you are truly drawn through the whole mess of events with two opposite and engaging characters. I thought the ending was a little rushed and convenient when some characters were explained off in order to allow our main character a chance to be a hero. We get a short mention and brief exploration into different alien cultures, but there certainly was enough left open to write a sequel if this author had chosen. But really, I just wish this book were longer. If you are ready to suspend disbelief and enjoy a classic science fiction novel then give this book a try.

Perhaps I need to stick to the classics! This is an excellent example of being able to tell a story without the use of profanity. If there was any, I dont remember them. Mr Garcia was a very good narrator also. There was not alot of action like one might want but my attention was held and my profanity mental meter did not peg every other paragraph. Mr Heinlein and others like him should teach the others this ability. Good job!

I agree with all the reviewers here who've said that this is a great story. But I would also like to add that Paul Michael Garcia's narration is one of the best I've ever heard from Audible. For me, the bar was set by Stefan Rudnicki with Ender's Game. Mr. Garcia with this book is a close second. He nailed it.

Would you consider the audio edition of Starman Jones to be better than the print version?

I consider the print and audio equally good.

Which character – as performed by Paul Michael Garcia – was your favorite?

Sam, ex marine, finagling, 'sidekick'.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Spoiler alert!

Yes, when Sam gave his life to save Max and Ellie.

Any additional comments?

The Heinlein Juveniles (minus Podkayne of Mars) are, for me, the very finest of YA writing and this particular story is certainly in the top five of these fine books. It as been a favorite of mine since I first read it in the late 50's early 60's. I reread it every few years and am very happy to have it well performed in audio.

Both myself and my husband really enjoyed this audiobook, its well read and a great story.

The only reason we didn't give this book 5 stars was because as much as its unabridged so it will be long we felt that sometimes the way it was narated made it feel a bit of a drag at points but it was however still very enjoyable. Also we feel this book is suitable not only for kids but others also so the bit added by Audible with "Audible Kids" mentioned was a little annoying.

As I said though, its a great book and the narator is good. We will definately listen to it again and have enjoyed it.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Kevin

Carlisle, CUMBRIA, United Kingdom

9/15/09

Overall

"Starman Jones"

Fantastic story. I read this book 25 years ago and had forgotten the plot , but enjoyed every minute.
Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Mairi

Alford, United Kingdom

10/26/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"A Belter in the best Boys Own Annual Tradition"

What made the experience of listening to Starman Jones the most enjoyable?

Whilst a bit dated in language and style this remains for me one of Heinleins' best works. Make no mistake this book is the precursor to all of the Star Wars, Lost in Space and Starship Troopers stories. It follows a young mans dream of running away from home to head into space. His story is full of exciting episodes with risk and danger, fun and trickery.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Sam the main characters mentor and cheeky rouge who knows how to make anything happen.

Which character – as performed by Paul Michael Garcia – was your favourite?

Max the young man who is the main character was read with the right amount of headstrong naivety and genuine discovery to make him as real as you or I.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

If you like your adventure stories then this one will hit the sweet spot.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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